Growing Up Is Hard To Do
by Sarcastic-Wyrm
Summary: Anata's roommate is a sheltered gnome, and walks into a situation that she didn't expect to encounter.


Kreeti had just shown back up from another exhausting run of slaughtering the savage sand trolls in Zul'Farrak. She had come away with a few good prizes, though, sporting her new spaulders, sword, and she had picked up a troll mask because she thought it looked funny. She opened her front door, walked in her house, and closed the door behind her. She sat by the door taking all of her armor off and placing it neatly on the stand by the door. She also unbuckled her weapon, laid them on their rack, and put each of her bags on their own little hook. She heard someone in the bath and figured her roommate Anata was in there. She knocked on the door and as she pulled her hand back, the door opened.

"Well good morning my little minx ready to... um, who…"

Kreeti took a second to take in what was in the bathroom and she let out a loud scream.

"Oh Damn! Hush! Stop screaming you silly girl!" The man in the bathroom said as he cried to cover himself up and turned around to look for a towel to wrap around his waist. He was muttering a long string of 'damn's.

"Who in the seven levels of Gnomeregan's basement are you!" She squeaked, her eyes were covered by her hands and her head tilted towards the floor. She heard hoofs scrambling along the floor above, and soon the owner of those hooves came rushing down the stairs wrapped in a sheet.

"Kreeti! Ay, Ay… Ay can eexplain! Eet ees alright, he ees my friend.!"

"Next time your friend should open a door with his pants on!" Kreeti said, turning to face Anata.

Anata looked up at Durnhelm and he shrugged.

"I guess I'll go get my pants." He muttered and walked up the stairs.

Kreeti shuddered and stared up at Anata. "Please tell me you weren't doing what I think you were doing with him."

Anata hesitated and Kreeti shuddered even more. "Only een my bed, nowhere else, Ay promeese you." Anata explained.

Kreeti sighed and shook her head, sitting down in a plush chair. "eewwww. Why me… a death knight… not even normal." She muttered

Anata walked over to the chair Kreeti was sitting in and kneeled down to speak with her eye-to-eye. "Leesten, Ay know you theenk eets all deesgusteeng and groos, and that _that_ should only happen een a private place, een a long-term relationsheep. Ay know one day you'll meet…"

"I know! I know!" Kreeti interrupted "It's just at least warn me or something I don't need to come home to my house and get surprised by having an eye-full of a mans bits! Just, JUST, EEEEEWW!!" She shook in her chair and closed her eyes.

Anata giggled but stopped when Kreeti growled at her.

"He's undead to boo! I definitely didn't want to EVER see that!" Kreeti wailed.

The stranger walked back down stairs, his plate armor clinking against itself. "I'll get going then, Ana. You know where you'll find me."

Anata gazed at him as he walked out the door and her expression saddened. "Fare well" she replied softly.

Kreeti watched him leave, and then turned her stare back onto Anata.

"Well?" She asked sharply. "Is he going to be stopping by again? Should I expect this sort of thing again? Can you at least…" Kreeti went off on Anata

Anata pulled her hand back and smacked Kreeti's cheek. Tears welled up in the gnome's eyes but Anata didn't care at the moment. "CHILD! Zees ees the first time een a good number of years Ay have had happeeness and someone who cares for me like Ay care for zem. Allow me zees bit of happeeness your majesty, for ay feel like ay am alone, and need a companion."

Kreeti held her small hand up to her stinging cheek and rage she didn't even know she had inside her boiled over and out of her mouth "OUT! JUST GET OUT!" she pointed at her door. "My mother was right! I should never house strange races! Just, Just, Argh! I can't believe you!"

Anata stood up and glared at the angry gnome "Fine. Ay hope you understand one day zat zere ees no deesteenct line between man and monster. Ay'll be back for ze rest of my theengs later."

"Fine! Just go!" Kreeti said, jumping up and standing in the chair.

Anata gathered the sheet around her, opened the front door and slammed it behind her as she left.

Kreeti shuddered and went over to the closet, and pulled out some cleaning supplies. She dusted and disinfected everything downstairs, and everything on the stairs When she was upstairs she pulled off the sheets and bedding and threw them all in a large linen sack, trying to touch them as little as possible. She carried the heavy bag downstairs slung over her shoulder and left her house. As she wandered through Ironforge, she was in a more foul mood then she ever had been in.

"How dare she! She never even asked, let alone told me! Good riddents to here! She was more trouble than she was help, a night owl, a lazy oaf, a bad cook and not even a proper mage! She makes a joke of the noble class, kicking and piercing people with her horns and hooves, and enjoying the part of toasting people to bits! Monsters? Feh! She's the weird space goat that decided to leech off of me after the contract was over. Aargh!" She muttered to herself walking to the cleaners.

Kreeti walked in the door and let the heavy bag drop to the floor. She hit the bell on the counter

"Be right with ya!" A voice shouted from the back, and a moment later, a dwarf appeared "Hi there Miss Steeltorque, what can I do for ya today?" She asked

"Bedding, I just want it cleaned please." Kreeti replied as she hefted the bag onto the counter.

The dwarf nodded, and weighed the bag on the scale noting Kreeti's mood. "Somethin' got ya down?" She pried.

Kreeti faked a smile, but it wasn't working. "No, not really, I just am feeling a bit under the weather today."

"Sorry to hear that miss. I hope ya feel a bit better soon." The dwarf said ripping off a piece of paper she'd been writing on. "They'll be ready by Friday."

Kreeti thanked her and left the shop, sighing to herself and walked back home. In a few hours after returning home, she fell asleep in the plush chair in front of the fire, a warm mug of mead cooling on the side.

A week and a half had passed since Anata had been kicked out by Kreeti when Kreeti finally saw her again in Ironforge. "Anata!" She called out and waved.

Anata snapped her head up and looked at the gnome from the mailbox. She snorted, and walked in the other direction. Kreeti tried scurrying after her, but after a couple of corners, she had lost sight of Anata. Kreeti picked up her hearth and called into it.

"Anata, are you there?"

"Oro?..." A Draeneic voice crackled back. "Haven't heard her hearth in a while."

"Hi Kuugen, thanks anways." Kreeti answered and stuck the hearth back in the belt.

Kreeti hung her head low and began regretting yelling at Anata. She walked back past the auction house and to her home, she didn't feel like auctioning off any more of her wares today. She stored them in a bin by the door, and put a pot of water on the stove so she could make tea. She lit the fireplace and watched as the flames grew higher.

"What have I done" She asked herself "It was disgusting, and a breach of decency, but I didn't mean to hurt her." She sniffled and brushed her nose with her sleeve. So much had been going on, she didn't know what to do. The kettle started to whistle, so she stood up and went to make herself some tea. Turning the stove off and sitting in her chair, she sipped the bitter hot beverage. She knew she had to meet with Overseer Oilfist of the Thorium Brotherhood tonight, since she was being put on assignment by Mr. Bronzebeard. Setting the cup of tea aside on the table, she changed into her best robes. The burgundy robes with the gold thread glimmered in the fire light. She looked in the mirror and her face looked tired, as if she had no strength to hold her face up. She sighted and applied makeup, and then put on her good bots, the ornamental shoulders and her gloves. She locked the door to her house and left for the gryphonrider so she could get down to the Searing Gorge.

The meeting had gone spectacularly well, and Kreeti was pleased with herself. She was feeling a bit tipsy from the Dark Dwarven Lager that was used in the celebration of the accord Kreeti was helping to set up between the Ironforge dwarves and the Thorium Brotherhood on lowering their prices. She whispered to the gryphon to change directions and stop at Stormwind. She wanted to tell her teacher the good news. She hopped off the gryphon as it landed and ran to where she had left her pony. She unhitched her pony and mounted it. Its hooves clicked fast on the cobblestones and she raced off to see if her teacher was there at the place they normally met so she could tell him the good news.


End file.
